New and advanced transmission systems are being developed by the automotive industry. These new systems often involve high energy requirements. Therefore, component protection technology must be developed to meet the increasing energy requirements of these advanced systems.
Extremely high metal-on-metal pressures are present in newer automatic and manual transmissions such as step automatic transmissions, continuously variable transmissions, manual or automated manual transmissions. High pressures are also present in various gear drive components such as automotive differentials and power transmission gear drive components. The high pressure present in such transmission and gear drive components mean that lubricant compositions used in these systems must be suitable for such extreme pressure applications to prevent wear and avoid seizure of the rotating and contacting components.
Thus, there continues to be a need for lubricant compositions which reduce wear while at the same time other advantageous properties of lubricating compositions such as good friction properties are retained.
Accordingly, it was an object of the presently claimed invention to provide a lubricant composition showing good fluidity—as expressed by a low friction coefficient of the lubricant composition—and excellent lubricity—as expressed by a low wear scar when using the lubricant composition in contact with rubbing surfaces.